


Training with the Runt

by ShadeShine



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Embrace the Glory of Battle, F/F, Jasper's not a bad guy kinda, Sparring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-06
Updated: 2016-06-06
Packaged: 2018-07-12 16:42:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7113859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadeShine/pseuds/ShadeShine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jasper's bored, Amethyst calls her a loser.  Jasper wants to see who the real loser is, so they solve it the only way two Warrior Gems can.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Training with the Runt

Keeping Jasper at the Temple had not exactly kept tensions low. Garnet always loomed close.

Pearl fussed and stayed close to Steven.

Amethyst, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy bumping into the larger Gem and muttering words that sounded vaguely like insults.

“Runt.” She snorted.

“Loser.” She got in return.

“What did you call me?” She planted her feet firmly, giving the lesser Gem her chance to back down.

“I called you a loser, dork face.” Amethyst stuck her tongue out.

Pearl was already watching. Steven was out, thankfully. He complicated everything.

It took her a moment to regain her composure. “You've never fought me. You don't know if I'm a 'loser' or your better.”

“Let's fix that, then. You're not so tough.”

Jasper found her gaze drifting towards the Pearl.

“Oh no.” She felt herself bristle at the refusal from her inferior, but the speaking continued. “Not in Steven's room. Go somewhere far away from humans if you're going to train.”

That last word bore a rather sharp edge.

“Of course, P. I wouldn't beat up Jasper too hard.”

Jasper only growled and nodded. As much as these Gems irritated her, she knew the only thing that waited for her on Homeworld was death.

The last thing she wanted to do was to shatter in silence, away from the battle that gave her life.

“I know just the place,” Amethyst declared, “come on, Jasp.”

Raising an eyebrow, the warrior followed her to the warp pad.

They came up in a strange place. If not for the warp pad, this place would be deserted. 

Not a battlefield, she could tell by the lack of damage to the grassy terrain. Not much of a facility, though, she could also tell by the lack of magic in the air and alterations to the terrain.

This place must have been mapped out for something before the war had gotten too intense.

Before so many comrades and foes had been used to make the Cluster.

Which Steven had claimed to have dealt with. She did not want to ask further on the details. If he gave them mercy, then that was all the better. Whatever he had done to them, it could not be as bad as making them into a monster.

Even the least of warriors did not deserve to be part of a fusion experiment.

Jasper's own fusion 'experiment' had hammered that point in rather nicely.

“What is this place?” she found herself asking.

“I dunno,” Amethyst answered, shrugging, “it's great for fighting, especially since you can't wreck anything except the ground.”

No marks. No combat damage. Truth be told, the local vegetation seemed healthy, albeit very short. “This place looks pristine. How often do you practice?”

“All the time.”

“But not here.” She observed.

“This place is special. Rose taught me the basics here.” Amethyst sighed. “The grass here is a special breed that softens your falls, too. Nice when you're fighting a frickin' huge Gem warrior.”

Though torn on whether that was an insult or not, Jasper smirked. “I'll have to throw you harder, then.”

“You'll have to try real hard!” The smaller Gem took a firm stance.

“Say that again when I put you six units under!” Jasper charged.

It was easy to grab the little runt, but keeping a hold of her was a challenge. Her body twisted and flowed, swelling and contracting with rather good timing.

Shapeshifting was not often used in combat due to the energy consumption. Truth be told, it had been years since she had adjusted her form. 

And here this little half-pint was doing it so fluidly that she had managed to crawl up to her shoulder and get her in a choke hold!

Though she did not need to breathe, joints were the weakest point of any form and it was rather disconcerting to have a warrior grasping around her neck.

However, the moment that Amethyst solidified her form to constrict her throat, Jasper was able to seize both of her arms and pry her off. Not knowing anything better to do, she tossed her away.

Amethyst landed in a roll and coiled up.

Jasper smirked even as she inwardly cursed her luck. It was impressive that the runt could recover so quickly.

It was too late to spool up and match her, so she braced herself. She could throw her once, why not twice?

She tried to follow the movement with her eyes, but the silver streak flashed toward her and twisted at the last second.

Jasper twisted her elbows outward, deflecting the ball away with her left arm but not without the cost of some pain.

Even as she mentally tried to track the movements of her foe as she slipped out of sight, excitement bubbled up in her. This was a challenge!

Not a Pearl she could not spar with lest she break the tiny thing or a fusion who would not fight her fairly, but a fellow warrior!

Unfortunately, as she turned to face Amethyst, she caught the spinning Gem to the face.

It was all she could do to get her arms around her to stop the rotation.

Amethyst came out hard on her left arm, exploiting the weakness. 

Jasper buckled a little, but fought back with her left arm. It was strange to be fighting someone who could bring all four limbs to bear while she could only use two. It was even stranger to be just holding her own.

Rising to her feet again, she drew back to slam Amethyst into the ground before she could get further up her arm.

Too late!

Instead of capitalizing on her weakness, however, the runt crawled into her hair, reached down, and pulled her lips apart.

She grunted something vaguely similar to 'let go!'

“Say uncle!” Amethyst demanded.

Jasper had no idea what her inferior was talking about, but she was not about to give in without a fight. She shook herself wildly, stomping the earth and whipping her head back and forth. For all of her efforts, though, nothing happened as the invader dug deeper into her hair. Worse, if she tried to curl up, that would just expose more of her to the smaller grappler's hands.

“Come on, say uncle!”

Realizing she had been bested, at least in a small way, she muttered, “uncle.”

“Great, we know who the loser is, Jasp!” Amethyst released her and leaped off. “And I'm the winner.”

“You aren't half bad.” Jasper gave another snort, remembering how faulty her knowledge of the Crystal Gems' customs was.

“That's what I should be saying. Usually Pearl just starts squawking when I do that during training, and then she tries to stab me.” She laughed and flopped back onto the grass. “She doesn't know a thing about wrestling.”

The larger Gem shook her head and turned away, but found herself smiling anyway.

When she turned back around a few moments later, she was serious and summoned her helmet. “Again! With weapons, this time.”

Amethyst pulled a whip from her gem.

Jasper was instantly reminded of how good her foe was in a clinch. Of course she'd like a weapon that let her get into close quarters.

“Ready?” The cheeky runt grinned.

“Go!” she shouted as she charged in.

Whips relied on distance. She would have to close the gap so Amethyst wouldn't be able to leverage its full power.

Amethyst rolled to the side, but Jasper turned just in time to throw her helmet in the path of the whip.

It was satisfying to hear the weapon bounce off. It was an affirmation of how indestructible she was.

She closed the distance, surely ready for anything the little Gem could pull off.

Then the whip tightened around her neck and started to tremble with a sort of agonizing energy.

Fighting through the pain, she reached up to grab the whip and pulled hard.

She was not ready for Amethyst to leap toward her and smash into her face.

Her helmet went flying from her head.

Jasper cursed as she turned to face her foe. “Runt!”

“Loser!” Amethyst shouted back, smirking and giving the whip a hard pull.

Reaching up to her gem as her form trembled from the damage, Jasper drew her knuckle blade. Equal parts studded knuckles and hand ax, it was a proper weapon for this kind of fight.

To demonstrate, she brought it down and severed the whip. It only took a second to pull the rest of the whip off of her neck.

“Oooh, so you do have a cooler weapon than that stupid helmet!” Amethyst pulled another whip from her Gem.

“Come closer, I'll show it to you!” she almost cheered as she charged again.

Amethyst was agile, true, but Jasper had longer legs and renewed enthusiasm. After a few severed whips and a few seconds, she got close enough to grab her and pull her up to face height. She had to fight the urge to swing for the kill. Instead, she smacked Amethyst in the belly with the flat of the blade.

Jasper pulled her foe up toward her face, staring her in the eyes from only a few inches away, and murmured, “say uncle.”

She had no idea what any of this 'uncle' business meant except admitting defeat, but she was not about to be considered an inferior by the fusion and by the runt.

Amethyst leaned a little closer and whispered, “uncle.”

Before Jasper could put her down, the smaller Gem pressed her lips against hers and then parted.

Sparks flew for a moment, and she wondered if the whip had done some sort of damage to her form.

Still, she set the runt down, returned her knuckle blade to her gem, and said, “well fought.”

“You're pretty good,” Amethyst said with a blush, rubbing the back of her head.

“I've had a lot of practice.” For once, though, bragging did not feel as good as it could. She decided that a little advice could help. “You need to change your targets. When you went for my neck while grappling, I was surprised by your audacity. When you chose the same target again, I was ready.”

“I need more practice. Again?”

Jasper shook her head. “Do you have a weapon other than those whips?”

“No.”

“The Pearl-”

“It's just Pearl.” Amethyst glared.

“Pearl.” She sighed. “Listen, I'm not used to how you Crystal Gems do things.”

“Well, get used to it. Pearl could totally kick your butt.”

“What? No way she could!” Now it was her turn to glare.

“Prove it.”

“Fine. But when I'm done and she's recovered, you're learning how to use a new weapon from her. You can't just depend on one weapon.”

“Fine. But only if you beat her.”

They headed to the warp pad, eager to execute their new plan.

When they appeared in the Temple, Pearl was waiting for them looking concerned.

“Pearl. Kick Jasper's butt.”

“What?” Pearl looked between them, confused.

Jasper rolled her eyes. “Teach Amethyst how to use a different weapon. She needs something better than a whip for fighting larger Gems.”

“I'm only doing that after you kick her butt, Pearl.” Amethyst leaned in. “She said there was no way you could kick her butt and that she's just a Pearl.”

“I did not say that!”

“You did call her 'The Pearl', though!” It was easy for two warriors to raise their voices to each other.

“And I corrected myself!

“Quiet down!” Pearl screamed.

And there was silence.

“Come with me. We're going to settle something right now.”

They stepped back onto the warp pad, and Jasper nearly fell to her knees.

The sky arena was a place where she had shattered first of her first few Gems, and seen a few of her comrades shattered.

It had been a fierce fight over a tactically insignificant location, all told, and it was the one where she had first encountered the Rebellion in combat.

Still, as the others stepped ahead so simply, she followed.

“If you two wish to learn new weapons, the best way to learn is to practice.” Pearl reached into her Gem and withdrew two swords.

She handed them both over to them, before drawing her own.

“Attack me with only your swords.” Pearl glared as she took a stance. “That should settle your dispute.”

Two smarter Gems might have realized the destruction they had earned.

Amethyst charged in, and Jasper came not far behind. It enraged her to watch the other Gem be beheaded so simply.

When she became engaged, she used her reach and weight to press Pearl back, but she could never penetrate her guard.

She drew back and used both hands to swing as hard as she could, only to catch air instead of Pearl's blade.

All of a sudden, the blade was through her chest.

Her sword fell to the ground, and she stared into the cold eyes of Pearl. “You both have so much to learn.”

Pearl pulled the sword free, and it was all Jasper could do to hold herself intact.

The servant Gem ignored her, moving to gather up Amethyst from where her gem had fallen.

A few moments later, she looked at her. “Still all together?”

Jasper found the strength to nod.

Pearl put her comrade's gem into her left hand. “Take her back to the Temple. I...need to be alone right now.”

Amethyst's gem was warm. It was amazing to believe that she could already be thinking of regenerating.

Jasper bowed her head slightly. “Thank you, Pearl.”

The best she got back was a little nod.

She went back to the Temple.

Steven ran in the door. “Hey Jasper!”

“Hey Steven.” She sighed and stepped over to the couch, sitting down. She set Amethyst on one of the pillows that had been on the couch.

“What happened to Amethyst?” he asked, running over and taking the pillow.

“We, uh...” Jasper rubbed the back of her head. “We kinda fought Pearl.”

“Why?” He placed a lamp over her, pointing its light down at her Gem.

“I called her 'The Pearl' while explaining to Amethyst she should learn a different weapon, and even though I stopped calling her that when Amethyst got mad, she told me there was no way I could beat Pearl.”

“Oh!” Steven turned toward her with a smile. “So that's why there's still a hole in your chest?”

“Yeah.” She smiled back.

“So, you learned that Pearl's really awesome too, right?”

Jasper sighed and stood up, looking toward the ceiling. “Yes, Pearl's...kinda awesome.”

“So, did you two have fun training with Pearl?”

“It...didn't really last long enough for us to have fun, Steven.” Jasper sighed in shame.

“Don't worry, one day, you two will beat her.”

“It isn't about kicking her butt, it's so Amethyst will learn a new weapon so she can fight larger Gems who she can't use her whip on.”

“Oh.” All of a sudden, Steven turned around. “So you two...trained together, too?”

“Yeah. We only went to Pearl after that conversation.”

“So you won?”

“I won the second one, yeah, and she said uncle and pressed her lips against mine, so she was saying she was weaker, even though she won the first one.” She shrugged.

“What?” Steven's eyes got wide and glinted, and he smiled. “Amethyst likes you!”

“Well, yeah, I like Amethyst, too. She's fun to fight with.” She nodded her head, unsure about his enthusiasm but unwilling to lie.

The boy cheered and hugged her leg. “I'm so happy for you two!”

She patted his head, glad that he was obviously just happy that she was integrating well with his combat force.

She did not know that Steven was going to tell Connie, that this would eventually get back to Garnet, and that she would never live it down.

For now, though, she could live in the ignorant peace of sitting around and waiting for Amethyst to reform.

She would get that runt to learn a new weapon.

And maybe get her to press her lips against hers again. 

That was kind of nice...


End file.
